Four New Officials Face Charges In Flint Water Crisis

Michigan Attorney General charges ex-emergency managers, former city executives for failure to protect citizens from contaminated water.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged two former State of Michigan emergency managers and two ex-City of Flint executives Tuesday with multiple felonies in the Flint water crisis investigation, reports CBS Detroit.

The two ex-emergency managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, face several felonies for “their failure to protect the citizens of Flint from health hazards caused by contaminated drinking water.”

Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson, former executives for the City of Flint, are facing felony charges of “false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses related to their roles in a process that led to the issuance bonds to pay for a portion of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) project.”

Scheutte said in a statement, “The crisis in Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and a failure of management. An absence of accountability. We will proceed to deliver justice and hold those accountable who broke the law.”

These latest round of charges is the third set for Schuette in the Flint water crisis probe. The attorney general, who also filed civil rights suits against water supply engineering firms, has brought 43 criminal charges against 13 current and former state and local officials since the beginning of the year-long investigation.

Flint water became contaminated with lead after Flint River became the city’s drinking water source in April 2014, endangering the health of thousands in the city, which boasts a predominately African-American community.

Congress approved a bill for water project authorization across the U.S. that included $170 million for treating lead in Flint’s drinking water earlier in December, reported Michigan Radio.